Chapter XI

Concerning their cutting of their hair, their care of their teeth,
and shaving of their beard

The men and women cut their hair close round to the ears and eyes.
The women, after the manner of the Parthians, cover their heads
with a large white veil, folded together in the form of a crown.

Both sexes exceed any other nation in attention to their teeth,
which they render like ivory, by constantly rubbing them with green
hazel and wiping with a woollen cloth. For their better
preservation, they abstain from hot meats, and eat only such as are
cold, warm, or temperate. The men shave all their beard except the
moustaches (GERNOBODA). This custom is not recent, but was
observed in ancient and remote ages, as we find in the works of
Julius Caesar, who says, (21) “The Britons shave every part of
their body except their head and upper lip;” and to render
themselves more active, and avoid the fate of Absalon in their
excursions through the woods, they are accustomed to cut even the
hair from their heads; so that this nation more than any other
shaves off all pilosity. Julius also adds, that the Britons,
previous to an engagement, anointed their faces with a nitrous
ointment, which gave them so ghastly and shining an appearance,
that the enemy could scarcely bear to look at them, particularly if
the rays of the sun were reflected on them.